All Chapters of ALPHA COLTEN: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Kieran’s Point Of View Working with Colten felt like living with a ghost.Not the kind you can pretend isn’t there, no, the kind that’s always in the corner of your vision, close enough to feel the temperature drop but far enough that you can’t quite touch them.Every day since I’d stepped into this new job had been a tightrope walk between my past and my present. The past was him, the man who had once held me in a gilded cage, the man I had loved and feared in equal measure. The present was my life now, my children, my freedom, my fragile independence that felt more like glass than steel. And now those two worlds were smashing into each other, over and over, until I didn’t know which way was up.I told myself I could handle it. Keep my head down, keep it professional. This wasn’t about him, or me, or the bond that had started humming in my veins the second our eyes met again. This was about my paycheck and my kids.But the mate bond didn’t care about my paycheck. Or my kids. Or my c

Kieran’s Point Of View I swear, if I have to survive one more day of Colten’s smirks and Selina’s laser-beam glares, I might just pack up the kids and go live in a tent somewhere.It’s not like I’m unused to stress, eight pups will break you in before sunrise most mornings, but this is different. This is a constant, exhausting pull in opposite directions.Colten seems to think it’s his personal mission to make my life complicated. The man can’t just give an order and leave. No, he has to hover, has to lean in a fraction too close when he’s explaining something, and has to drop little comments under his breath like we’re sharing some private joke. He looks at me like he’s memorizing my face again.And Selina… Selina looks at me like she’s imagining how I’d look six feet under.I keep telling myself I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to work, keep my head down, provide for the pups, and stay far enough away from Colten that Selina’s nails don’t end up in my back.It’s a solid plan.

Selina’s Point Of View I didn’t slam the phone down when Rogan hung up on me.I didn’t throw it either, though God, I wanted to.I just sat there in the study, staring at my own reflection in the black screen like it was mocking me. My pulse was so loud in my ears it felt like the whole damn room was vibrating.He was supposed to be the one to handle this in a less brutal way. Rogan. Charming, persistent Rogan, with his whole “I’ll make her mine” act. It was perfect. Let him chase her down, let him be the mess in her life, let him get rid of her for me. But no, he bails. Just like that. No explanation, no apology.Something in my gut told me he’d seen something. Something that made him pull out faster than a coward in a losing fight. And knowing Kieran, it wasn’t just her sharp tongue or her stubbornness. No, it was bigger than that.I wasn’t going to sit here and guess.So I made some calls. Quiet calls. The kind that never show up in phone records because they’re done on lines most

Colten’s Point Of View I couldn’t sleep that night.Not after what happened at the park.Eight kids. Six boys. Two girls. My black hair. My green eyes.And Kieran’s name on their lips like it was the most natural thing in the world.I kept replaying it over and over, trying to make sense of it, but the truth was already there, gnawing at me from the inside out. I didn’t need proof. I knew. I felt it. But knowing wasn’t enough. Not for something like this.So I came up with a plan.The next afternoon, I found them again. Same park, same chaotic energy, chasing each other in some elaborate game only they seemed to understand. I waited, keeping my distance, pretending to be on a phone call while my eyes followed their every move.When one of the two girls, Isla, I remembered, stopped to sip from a juice box, she set it down on the bench for a moment. Her brother Gabriel had left a half-eaten granola bar wrapper there too. I moved in casually, like I was just picking up trash, and slid b

Kieran’s Point Of View The office was too quiet.Not the peaceful kind of quiet, either, the kind that makes your shoulders tense and your skin feel a size too small. I’d been reading through a contract, halfway through making a note in the margin, when the stillness hit me. In New York, silence isn’t neutral. It’s a warning.Then came the knock. Two sharp taps. No pause in between. Confident. Decisive.I didn’t need to guess. I’d felt him long before the sound reached my ears.“Come in,” I said, hoping my voice didn’t betray the sudden sprint of my pulse.Colten stepped inside, and… he looked different, like someone had put a thousand pounds on his back and told him to keep walking. There was a heaviness in his eyes that didn’t used to be there.He stayed by the door, and I stayed behind my desk. My safe space. My barricade.“Kieran,” he said finally.Damn it. My name in his voice, it was a tug I didn’t want, didn’t need.“What do you want, Colten?” I kept it clipped. Professional.